Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell ------------->>>>>>>http://bit.ly/1cH2Fr7<<<<<<<-----------

Introductory Comments:

Well my friends, for the first time in a long time I feel like a runner again. I feel like I’m training correctly and gaining fitness. Since the last time we talked I’ve brought my running up to around 30 miles a week. Coach started me out doing two mid-week runs, an easy speedwork session on Saturday and a longish run on Sunday, with core and a bike ride on the other days to build my base.

The beginner speedwork sessions aren’t really speedwork in the sense that I’m used to historically but more like a preliminary warm up to get ready for some harder stuff to come. It’s a good workout that I have put my own spin on and I’ll give you my rendition of it in today’s section two.

I got Buddy out into the trails with me Tuesday morning for an easy run. He handled it just fine. It’s the best time of year to trail run in New England because it’s still cool in the mornings and the deer flies aren’t out yet. The mosquitoes are as thick as smoke but only bother you if you stand still too long.

I’ve been using the new Garmin 310XT I bought. It’s basically a next generation of the Garmin 305 I had before. In fact, I’m using the old 305 heart rate strap. It seems to work but I think I need to replace the strap because it’s giving me some odd heart rate data.

The 310 is a solid device. I haven’t delved into all the features yet but it seems a bit less clunky than the 305 interface. It picks up satellites much faster, especially when I move a few hundred miles sideways between my runs. It has up to 4 data display screen for each sport which I like. The screens are for the most part readable.

The interface is called an ANT Stick which is a USB stick about the size of your thumbnail. I know I’m going to lose this tiny thing. Maybe I should tether it to a cricket bat or something like they do for the restroom keys at gas stations?

The interface works well enough. As soon as you walk within 3 meters of your computer it senses a new workout, uploads it to Garmin connect and resets the watch. You’re ready for your next workout. The battery life is stated to be over 10 hours, but I don’t have any plans to workout for over 10 hours any time in the near future. I did wear the old 305 for a 50 miler and it just made it to 10 hours.

Somehow I managed to turn off the interface or it turned itself off this week and I had to spend some time diagnosing why my workouts wouldn’t upload. Somehow the pairing got switched off about 3 menus deep into the setup and I really can’t see how I did that by accident?

It’s a good device and does what I need it to do. There is no client software on your computer anymore. It is all run through the cloud on the Garmin Connect website. Which of course you have to register for and is a bit proprietary. You can view your heart rate, distance, time, pace etc on all your workouts there and export them to other logs, etc.

It’s also much easier to build workouts with the online interface. At first I found the interface mystifying. Let’s say you want to build a workout with a 10 minute warm up in zone 2, 7X800 at marathon pace, and a 10 minute cool down. That sounds pretty straight forward but I had to resort to a youtube video to figure out how to drag and drop the repeats, etc on the Garmin connect site. Then you export the workouts to the watch.

When you’re ready to go you hit the ‘Do workout’ menu selection on the watch and it prompts you through your work out. It has different chimes for when you are over target pace, on pace or under pace and the same for Heart rate. Which is super helpful for doing interval work.

Holy cow, I was just going to mention in passing that I have a new watch and then it turned into a review.

Well today we speak with our old friend from Japan Amy Chavez who makes a habit out of running medieval Japanese pilgrimage routes. You remember her book on running the Shikoku pilgrimage? Good read – I quite enjoyed it.

We talk about the iconic Marathon Monks of Mt. Heie and how there may be some misconceptions in our mythology.

In section one I’m going to talk about a flow states and in section two I’m going to walk you through a beginner speed and strength work out.

On with the Show!

…

You should really sign on to my email list. Rather than basking in safe obscurity you can declare your allegiance to RunRunLive and get my drivel directly in your inbox. I mean, really, you’ve made it to 289 episodes and sucked the vital life force out of my narrative for 5+ years you should subscribe or at least join the RunRunLive Facebook group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/46620307582/ or just search FaceBook for “RunRunLive”.

On with the show!

Section one:

Flow States - http://runrunlive.com/flow-states

Featured Interview:

Amy Chavez

I started researching the Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei in 2011 for my own book "

"Running the Shikoku Pilgrimage: 900 Miles to Enlightenment" about my 900 mile run on one of Japan's ancient walking routes (see RunRun Live Episode 239). I wanted to know if any other people had run the Shikoku Pilgrimage or any other pilgrimages in Japan. At that time I came across a book by John Stevens called The Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei" where he suggests the monks are better than Olympic athletes because of the rigorous mental and physical feats they accomplish, among them running 30 to 40 km every day for 100 days in a row. They continue this for seven years, running up to 60 to 84 km a day in some years. I had heard of this book before and found out it had a bit of a cult following in the 90's among runners.

So I decided to include this in my book to give credit to the marathon monks and to show that I was not the first person to run pilgrimages. I even contacted the author of the Marathon Monks book, and asked him to check the parts of my manuscript that dealt with the monks' running. He said everything was right and only made a suggestion about the wording of one of the sentences.

After my book was published, (luckily, I had only a few lines about the monks in it) I started doubting some of the things in John Stevens's book. So many things just didn't seem right about these "Running Buddhas" as the author called them. How could they run in robes, wearing (or carrying) a large oblong hat, and carrying a lantern? for example. And why would they run the course when they clearly didn't need to (there was no expectation to run it, nor any time constraints)? Contrast that to the Tarahumara in Mexico, who needed to cover long distances just to get into town, and thus running provided a practical mode of transporting themselves that was faster than walking. But for these Tendai monks, there was no obvious reason or justification for wanting more blisters or wear and tear on their joints than necessary. As a matter of fact, finishing the daily route too quickly was frowned upon.

I also talked to the Tendai monks on Mt. Hiei myself, and watched documentaries interviewing the marathon monks in Japanese. Nothing really added up to what Stevens had said in his book when it came the running parts.

In the following 2-part series published in RocketNews24, I bust the myth of the marathon monks.

Marathon Monks of Mt. Hiei: Better than Olympic Athletes? Part I

busts the myth that they run and explains what the Tendai Buddhist monks are all about.

In Marthon Monks of Mt. Hiei: Better than Olympic Athletes? Part II, I run the monks' 30 km course myself and reveal its secrets.

You can also read the articles on RocketNews24's site, like them on Facebook and/or follow them on Twitter.

Amy Chavez lives and runs in Japan and is a writer for the Japan Times, Huffington Post and RocketNews24. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

It’s been a busy few weeks for me. I’ve always got a lot going on but with ramping up my training and work travel I’m feeling a bit old and used up!

I’ll tell you a couple stories from the last couple weeks.

With work travel I’m usually starting my day by meeting someone at 7:00 or 7:30 for breakfast. This means my miracle morning mostly consists of rolling into my shoes at 5:00 AM and getting out the hotel door before I have a chance to come to full consciousness and realize how little sense it makes.

It sucks to get up early and workout on jetlagged legs, little sleep and no nutrition but if you don’t do it in the morning it won’t get done. It gives you one thing that, even if the rest of the day goes poorly, you got that one thing done.

I was working in last week in New Jersey - this was the nice part of New Jersey- in Basking Ridge. I got up and into my shoes for a 1:20 run and just headed down the road. After a mile or so I ran by the entrance to a park. The sign said “Pleasant Valley”. I went in the park figuring it would just be one of the postage stamp sized urban parks but at least I’d get a ¼ respite from the highway.

I made my way through the parking area and tennis courts and a pond and came upon the one thing that brightens every road-warrior-runner’s heart and soul – functioning, unlocked park toilets! After this I was able to lighten the load, so to speak, and continued exploring.

As I continued a clockwise loop of the pleasant valley I noticed a trail entrance. Of course I turned into the trail. That’s a life lesson for you. Always take the trail. What’s the worst that can happen? You have to turn around and come back.

The trail turned out to be a well groomed 8 foot wide bark mulched beauty of a trail. I continued to follow it up the side of the valley. The day was going to be warm and humid but at 5 in the morning the valley was indeed pleasant with a slight mist in the air and the sun not yet over the horizon. The braod mulch trail was overarched with a cathedral of trees. More like a dark gree misty tunnel than a trail.

As I continued wend my way up the trail saw a silent figure standing in the middle of the trail ahead. Some sort of four-legged friend that I could just make out standing in the middle of the trail facing my approach. As I got closer it resolved into a fawn; a little Bambi, ears twitching, curiously watching this old bear struggle up the trail with NJ story. I got within 25 feet before Bambi scampered into the underbrush.

The trail came out on playing fields and I saw worn track in the grass around them so I followed it and entered another trail on the other side. It turned out to be about a mile and a half of groomed trail the cricled the park. I ran the trail loop twice. I saw bright red cardinals and flushed a great blue heron from the pond and mildly alarmed several rabbits for good measure.

I ran back to the hotel to finish up my run, but had managed to trade 3 miles of New Jersey highway for a respite in the middle of my run in the pleasant valley. Why? Because I was curios and took the unknown path.

This past week Coach threw some real training at me and I had a 7 X 800 at race pace to do on Thursday morning. I was staying down in Buckhead. If any of you know Buckhead you know there is not a flat piece of ground to be found anywhere to do a tempo workout on.

After rolling into my shoes at 5:00 AM and getting out the doors I went in search of somewhere to get some 800 meter repeats in. I first made my way to the local little league fields in Franky Allen Park but these were carved into the side of the hill and not really conducive for intervals.

Then I had a brain storm. I ran back over to the Lennox Mall and climbed to the roof of the parking garage! I did my final 4 repeats on the roof of the garage. It turned out to be about a 1/6th of a mile loop.

I did manage to consolidate my websites all onto one hosting provider. You may notice some things broken or missing from RunRunLive but I’ll work through it as I have time. I’m blessed with lots of ambition but seldom the time or focus to actually do anything about it!

Interesting interview with Amy today. The marathon monks, it turns out, are a myth. But they are such a great myth we want to believe it. We want to believe it because it supports our worldview as runners. These guys are proof positive that running is a vehicle to transcend.

But they aren’t. It’s all a myth. Since it’s such a good myth and we want it to be true we resist the facts when they come to light. We believe what we want to believe especially if it supports our world view. That’s how religions get started. That’s how people start codifying myth into dogma and soon we’re shooting RPG’s at each other.

Not me man. It’s summer time and the livin is easy. The cat fish are jumpin and the tomatoes are high.

Cheers,

https://www.facebook.com/groups/46620307582/ or just search FaceBook for “RunRunLive”.

And I do have an email list that I shoot the shows out to. I’ve been writing some extra posts on my website RunRunLive and I may start recording them as a bonus for those of you who are paying attention!

Happy Mother’s Day people.

Be good to each other – party on.

Cheers,

Outro Bumper

Thanks for listening folks I appreciate your support. RunRunLive is a free service for you because I like writing and telling stories.

I also love to meet folks so feel free to reach out to me at Gmail or any of the other social networking sites. I’m CYKTRussell. And as you know that’s Chris-Yellow-King-Tom-Russell with two Esses and two Ell’s.

My Website is http://www.runrunlive.com and most if not all of this content is posted out there. If you want the show notes to magically show up in your inbox when I publish a show in a beautiful HTML wrapper you can subscribe to the mailing list at my site. It’s a useful thing if you are moved by something I say and would like to see if what I wrote is the same thing! It also has all the links to everything and everyone I talk to and about.

Other than that, thank you for your attention, do epic stuff and let me know if I can help.

Ciao

Happy Song – Super Hero - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Superhero

Other products from Chris Russell you may be interested in

The Mid-Packer’s Lament

On Amazon

On Kindle

On Audio (Read by the author) – http://www.runrunlive.com

The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy

On Kindle

Standard Links:

http://www.runrunlive.com

http://www.runeratti.com

Http://www.coolrunning.com

http://www.Grotonroadrace.com

http://www.SQRR.org

www.midpackerslament.com

Contact:

Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtube

Bio

Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad.

Support RunRunLive; Purchase an audio book of running stories. Written and performed with love by Chris Russell ------------->>>>>>>http://bit.ly/1cH2Fr7<<<<<<<-----------

Introductory Comments:

Hello my friends. I think I’m supposed to say ‘welcome to the RunRunLive Podcast” or something like that. Really – It’s like we’ve been married for 30 years, right? I can’t even bother to introduce myself anymore? Where are my manners? Ah well...

I think it might because writing these intro and outro pieces are actually the final step in my creation process. I write the other bits when I’m fresh. I usually leave these last bits for just before my deadline when I’m brain dead – or more brain dead than usual.

I’m still experimenting with the miracle morning and I get this killer energy loss around 3:00 in the afternoon. I’m going to go try running instead of trying to work through it. It seems like a bit of an artificial tradeoff – a zero sum game if you will – trading a couple hours of super clear productivity in the morning for a walking dead fugue state in the afternoon.

I just feel like taking a nap!

Took Buddy to the groomers this week and got him his summer cut. He looks like a puppy. They made me sign an ‘elderly dog’ waiver because he’s 11. They said he was ok with everything until they tried to blow-dry his face. He didn’t like that at all. Understandable.

Since we last talked I have started running! I’m up to 3 times a week and it’s a bit grueling. I was out Tuesday, at lunch and it was a bit hot. I was trying to keep it in zone 2 but my heart rate monitor just wouldn’t stay down no matter how slow I went. But I could talk in full sentences…and wasn’t breathing hard.

Picture me barely moving down the sidewalk, looking at my watch and shaking my head, repeating “the quick red fox jumped over the lazy brown dog”. It was either a monitor malfunction or a quadruple bypass event. I just stopped looking at it and ran easy.

Then I thought about it. I’m running along worrying about my heart rate and it occurred to me that I’m just an idiot. And I broke into a big smile because I was out running on a beautiful spring day. That’s our theme today. Stop worrying about the race you have in 3 months and the race you had 3 months ago and just enjoy the fact that you are here and can do what you love to do.

In other news - last week I learned how to play Sidoku! So there you go. Old dogs can learn new tricks. And I’ve gotten part way through the Rubiks cube. Gotta keep your mind active with different things. It turns out the Cube is just repeatable algorithms. Some kid in Australia can solve it in 5 seconds.

Since my Plantar Fasciitis has resolved itself I‘ve switched to wearing barefoot shoes most of the time to strengthen my feet. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not running in barefoot shoes, I’m just walking around in them. I have a pair of vivobarefoot dress shoes that are super light and comfy that I wear on the road now and an old pair of Altra Lone Trails that I can wear around the yard.

I think it helps with foot strength and balance and making you mindful of your foot plant. You just have to be careful not to come down too hard on anything because they don’t have much protection and you can bruise your foot – especially the heel. Every little bit helps!

I’m harvesting lettuces already from my garden! There you go. $200 bucks worth of plants and seeds, a few thousand dollars worth of my time and I get $1.29 worth of lettuce! It coming on great and with any luck and another few thousand dollars worth of my time I might harvest $10 -$20 worth of fresh produce by the end of the summer.

My berries are all coming back strong from last year, I’m going to get big crop of blueberries and red raspberries. The strawberries didn’t come back. That seems to be the way they are. You get 2 good years and then they don’t come back.

I’ve planted beans, corn, kale, tomatoes, chard and peppers. We’ll see what grows. If I shift my base of operations down to the Cape I’ll have to find someone to water and weed for me.

I also was quite proud of myself this past weekend because I replaced a shower valve without causing a major plumbing disaster in the house. What did we do before YouTube?

That’s it people. I’m ramping up my running and looking forward to some high-quality suffering this summer.

In today’s show we have a chat with David Hollingsworth who talks about a life event that changed him and how that impacted his endurance sports and life outlook. In part one I’m going to talk about living an action centric life and in section two I’m going to give you some tips on how to maintain your sanity when you’re on the comeback trail!

On with the Show!

…

You should really sign on to my email list. Rather than basking in safe obscurity you can declare your allegiance to RunRunLive and get my drivel directly in your inbox. I mean, really, you’ve made it to 289 episodes and sucked the vital life force out of my narrative for 5+ years you should subscribe or at least join the RunRunLive Facebook group.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/46620307582/ or just search FaceBook for “RunRunLive”.

I'm a spinal injury survivor, having recovered from a severe accident in 2004. I had to learn to stand and walk all over again. Since then, I've moved from a wheelchair to walking, running, cycling and swimming. I've ran a half-marathon, completed a triathlon and one of the toughest bike rides in the country.

I write and speak about overcoming obstacles and getting past fear to the fun on the other side."

Hope this is what you need...let me know if you need anything else..

Thanks!

David

www.holliworks.com

Section two:

Coming Back - http://www.runrunlive.com/coming-back

Outro:

Had a great run with Buddy in the woods last night. I ignored my heart rate monitor and just ran easy. The legs were sore from a leg workout on Wednesday, but it was a real joy to be out on the trails with my dog. 7 miles was a bit long for Buddy and he’s getting up a little slowly today. He’ll sleep it off today. He’s up in my bed right now, recovering.

It was 66 degrees and misty – perfect trail running weather.

If you were one of the 361 people on my mailing list you got the a link to the meditation piece I did last show. I edited it stand alone with some zen music from podsafe. You can also find the post on my website RunRunLive.

If you have issues with the website just keep trying. I’m trying to move my site over to a different hosting provider and it’s taking forever. After 5 years we’ve accumulated a lot of stuff. Once I get it up and running I’m going to revamp it. It’s time.

Since we are closing in on 300 podcasts I’ve been thinking about a new theme and a new format. If you were one of the 93 members on the RunRunLive Facebook group you’d know I’ve been batting around some ideas and looking for feedback.

Our current theme is the transformational power of endurance sports. I think the next theme will be ‘Service through endurance sports – to change the world’. I would interview people who are making an impact in our community. I would work the questions towards “How can we, through our own running and training change the world?” And I’m not just talking about charity running – I’m talking about setting an example and building a sphere of influence. What do you think?

For the other two segments I’m considering some combination of 1) reading other people’s impactful blog posts, 2) some more comedic pieces, 3) a Q&A session with a guest host.

Sorry – back to running. Yup I’m up to 7 miles or so 3X a week and climbing. I’m sore but structurally sound. Mark Robert Sands – you remember Mark from the 366 project interview - he had the same perroneal tendonitis in his ankle that I have and he sent me a video on how to work the trigger points to keep it at bay – it seems to be working.

I haven’t actually signed up for any races yet, but I’m looking for something to take a late summer swing at a qualifier – I might go back to Pocatello – A bunch of people I know are going there this year.

I’m also in the midst of investigating a Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim run. It’s on my bucket list. The way I would do it is run across on the first day, stay at the lodge, and then run back the next day. Anyone interested? It would be in late April/Early May of 2015. It’s about a marathon distance each way, with drastic weather changes and about 4500 feet of loss and gain. I hear the scenery is beautiful.

Life is good.

That’s one of the secrets. Being able to live in the present and celebrate it.

Part of it is simply having a positive outlook and looking for the abundance instead of complaining and looking for the scarcity.

Part of it is being ok with the fact that there are things that you cannot change, things that are out of your control. You pour your energy and spirit into those things that you can influence and you make a decision to accept and not worry about those thinks you can’t.

Part of it is being aware and awake in the present. Why continue to suffer about events in the past? You can’t change them. Why let yourself be worried about events in the future? They are in the future and you’re mortgaging today in the process. Take the time to smile and enjoy the hard work that is life.

You only have one today. Celebrate it.

Cheers,

https://www.facebook.com/groups/46620307582/ or just search FaceBook for “RunRunLive”.

And I do have an email list that I shoot the shows out to. I’ve been writing some extra posts on my website RunRunLive and I may start recording them as a bonus for those of you who are paying attention!

Happy Mother’s Day people.

Be good to each other – party on.

Cheers,

Outro Bumper

Thanks for listening folks I appreciate your support. RunRunLive is a free service for you because I like writing and telling stories.

I also love to meet folks so feel free to reach out to me at Gmail or any of the other social networking sites. I’m CYKTRussell. And as you know that’s Chris-Yellow-King-Tom-Russell with two Esses and two Ell’s.

My Website is http://www.runrunlive.com and most if not all of this content is posted out there. If you want the show notes to magically show up in your inbox when I publish a show in a beautiful HTML wrapper you can subscribe to the mailing list at my site. It’s a useful thing if you are moved by something I say and would like to see if what I wrote is the same thing! It also has all the links to everything and everyone I talk to and about.

Other than that, thank you for your attention, do epic stuff and let me know if I can help.

Ciao

Happy Song – Super Hero - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Superhero

Other products from Chris Russell you may be interested in

The Mid-Packer’s Lament

On Amazon

On Kindle

On Audio (Read by the author) – http://www.runrunlive.com

The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy

On Kindle

Standard Links:

http://www.runrunlive.com

http://www.runeratti.com

Http://www.coolrunning.com

http://www.Grotonroadrace.com

http://www.SQRR.org

www.midpackerslament.com

Contact:

Cyktrussell At gmail and twitter and facebook and youtube

Bio

Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad.